








Passing' Thoughts 



By 
Herbert Wolcott Bo-wen 



-< 







NEW YORK 


Gbe fmtcfcerbocker press 


1902 



A 













To Carolyn. 

You, Thou, Mine. 

H. W. B. 



LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES 

Caracas, Venezuela, Aug. 27, 1902. 



PASSING THOUGHTS 



What we call the cares and vexations 
of life are generally duties we are loth 
to perform. 



Destiny is principally a question of 
determination. 

3 
It is worse to make others relax their 
principles than for you to relax your 
own. 

5 



4 
Thought finds readier expression than 
feeling : hence the delicious silence of 
lovers. 

5 
The difference between your friend 
and your enemy is that the former ex- 
aggerates your virtues and the latter 
your faults. 



Your ideals should never be so high 
as to be out of the reach of your com- 
mon sense. 

7 
Christians very easily confound the 
Lamb of God with the Golden Calf. 

6 



8 

As winter tests the vitality of a plant, 
so separation tests the strength of 
friendship. 

9 
Sin has all the attractions that Virtue 
ought to have. 

10 

To every mortal is the power given 
To make some other's life a hell or 
heaven. 

1 1 

Great length of tongue cannot supply 
A small man's insufficiency. 

12 

A man with an empty heart and a 
plethoric brain is sadly deformed. 



13 
Wish not to skip a single hour of life, 
for that hour might contain some valu- 
able lesson or experience. 

H 

One does not worry much who hears 
the cry, 

" The world is losing fast its coal sup- 
ply" 

If one has got a cinder in his eye. 

15 

What we have we depreciate : what 
we have not we more than appreciate. 

16 

Hopes from fears their brightness bor- 
row ; 
Joy its radiance gets from sorrow. 



i7 
Women should not talk about dress, 
for dress is one of the arts by which 
they please ; it therefore should not 
seem to be studied. 

18 

Do your best to get what you want, 
and if you do not get it, do your best 
to get on without it. 

l 9 

In matters in which the heart is con- 
cerned one can be happy in hoping 
without reason, but not in reasoning 
without hope. 

20 

Do not worry about the agonizing 

9 



mortification you think you will feel 
when Judgment Day comes. Long be- 
fore even Nero's soul is turned inside 
out every possible sin will have been 
exposed countless times. 

21 

Those that sigh for love and sympa- 
thy sigh for the bread and water of life. 

22 

If a woman would give half as much 
time to preserving her husband's love 
as she dedicates to preserving her looks, 
few homes would be unhappy. 

23 

There are faces that seem to need 

but one touch to make them beautiful : 

that touch is love. 

10 



24 

Love is the crowning glory of life. 
Sad are those who know it not ; their 
day has no sun, and their night has no 
stars. 

25 
The reason walks ; the heart flies. 
The weak wait ; the strong seize. 

26 

Open your arms too soon and you 
will learn that persons are very skilful 
at dodging. 

27 

My patience is a virtue only so long 

as it does not encourage in you the vice 

of procrastination. 

11 



28 

Man lives on necessaries and for 
luxuries. 

29 

Thrice blessed is the woman whose 
beauty attracts, whose speech allures, 
and whose virtues captivate. 

30 
Use your past as your rudder. 

3i 
To envy is bad, but to wish to be en- 
vied is worse, 

32 

The more sympathetic we are with 

others, the better we are able to bear 

our own troubles. 

12 



33 
Moral courage is to man what the 
sun is to the universe — the glory and 
the splendor. 

34 
How great Shakespeare is ! and yet, 
how he sinks into nothingness when 
my sweetheart comes behind my chair, 
draws back my head, and kisses me with 
her warm, rosy lips ! 

35 
One can estimate with great accuracy 
how dull and insipid your life is by the 
amount of gossip you indulge in about 
others. 

36 

One's interest in things is propor- 

13 



tioned to one's knowledge of them, and 
one's indifference to one's ignorance. 

37 

A dirty face is less disgusting than a 
dirty mind. 

38 

Man's conceit is only equalled by 
woman's deceit. 

39 
If Life does not smile on you, smile 
on Life ; all sweet smiles are contagious. 

40 

The milk of human kindness does not 
satisfy you ; you want the cream. 

14 



4i 
Love is always ready to forgive ; it 
is only self-love that is obdurate. 

42 

If you must be a philosopher, pray be 
an Epicurean or a Stoic : the former 
gets the most pleasure out of life, and 
the latter the least pain — but, better still, 
be both. 

43 

Why expect marriage to be faultless, 
when every other institution known to 
man, whether social, political, or re- 
ligious, falls far short of perfection ? 

44 

A sensitive person without sense is 
always a selfish person. 

15 



45 
Whatever is well done always seems 
easily done. 

4 6 

Thoreau was a fine specimen of a 
recluse, but not of a man. 

47 
A jealous husband converts the word 
," wedlock " into " lock-and-key." 

48 

We all have, in one form or another, 
our rattles and toys. 

49 

Nothing in life is half as bad or as 

beautiful as it seems — and not only 

nothing, but also nobody. 

16 



5o 

How much by every heart is forgot- 
ten that should be remembered, and 
how much remembered that should be 
forgotten t 

51 

Many see that the times have 
changed : few that they are changing. 

52 

Death brings peace to the dead, but 
takes it away from the living. 

53 
No one, until tested, knows how ex- 
pansive is his capacity for evil. 

54 
There are feelings stronger than any 
human law can create — or dominate. 

17 



55 
The cleverest reader of others is he 
who reads himself most cleverly. 

56 

Alas for those that have a congealed 
emotional nature ! They miss that daily 
giving and taking of sunshine that lends 
to life ineffable sweetness and charm. 

57 
If you are not happy, try to be ; for 
that is the next best thing. 

58 

If the gods made man to be little 
more than the beasts, man has made 

himself to be little less than the gods. 

18 



59 
One should have a great variety in 
life so as to keep all of one's self awake. 

60 

Do not make life any smaller than it 
is. 

61 

He who praises unjustly is to be 
censured quite as severely as he who 
blames unjustly ; for both are weak. 

62 

Calvinism hardens the heart more 
quickly than rum softens the brain. 

63 

Why expect one to agree with you 
in mind more than in looks ? 

19 



64 
Deference wins oftener than defiance. 

65 

There is no rest like being with those 
one loves. 

66 

Those that wait for something to turn 
up should beware lest it be their own 
toes. 

67 

One's physical courage depends on 
one's nerves : one's moral courage on 
one's character. 

68 

Life without health is Venus without 

beauty. 

20 



6 9 

Sarcasm is the happy art 

Of breaking someone else's heart. 



70 

Good deeds are better than good 
words, and decency is better than doc- 
trine. 

7i 
It is better for a man to blunder than 
to be afraid to act. 



72 

Love is the supreme law of the heart, 
and Morality the supreme law of the 
mind. 



21 



73 
Employment of the mind is the best 



tonic. 



74 

You can not make the most of your- 
self by making little of others. 



75 

The ghosts of generations past 
Still live in us, and hold us fast. 



7 6 

The fine arts 

Are divine arts 

Of fine hearts. 
22 



77 

When Faith says Yes and Reason No, 
The Yes must ever weaker grow. 



78 

He : "I think not of myself enough." 
She : " That 's why you 're so uncouth 
and rough." 

79 
Though beauty be a dower 
For but a passing hour, 
How peerless is its power ! 

80 

Griefs there are that last forever, 

Though by lips they ne'er be spoken. 

23 



Ties there are Time cannot sever, 
Though the hearts they bind be 
broken. 

81 

No tears are utterly hopeless, 

Or never their course we could stay ; 

No smile is perfectly happy, 
Or never 't would fade away. 

82 

Though " Liberty" is but a little word, 
Tis written large on History's every 
page- 
In blood till recently, but now in gold. 

83 

Like Persian roses blooming in the snow 

The smiles are that you lovingly bestow 

On others, now that you are deep in woe. 

24 



8 4 

Night is only darkened day ; 

Age is antiquated youth ; 

Error is perverted truth ; 
Sin is virtue all astray. 

85 

The roads in life that lead us, 

And speed us 
To love, or wealth, or fame, 
Are many ; but we pass 
Along them to the same 
Alas. 

86 

Many things seem out of place, 
Like the frown on Dives' face, 
Or the poor man's happy smile 
Still — but study them awhile, 

25 



You will grant, with easy grace, 
Each is in its proper place. 

87 

In every human creature 
There is a dual nature 

Athirst 
For what is best and worst ; 
And chiefly 'tis the chance 

Of circumstance 

Which cup 
Each one of us takes up. 

This was the thought of each to whom 

she bowed : 

A Sage, " Divine are beauty, health, 

and youth." 

26 



A Prince, " To win her, who would not 

be proud ? " 
A Poet, " Dreams are ever less than 

truth." 
A Nun, " Oh, would that I were pure 

as she ! " 
A Priest, " Few viler maids confess to 



me. 



8 9 

Sweet mem'ries bless 
My loneliness, 
As roses bloom 
About a tomb 

90 

Wisdom bids us bear our burdens 

With a firm and steadfast mind, 

Glancing not with trepidation 

Either forward or behind. 
27 



9 1 
The points in which religions all agree, 
The best religion for mankind would be. 

92 

There 's many a rose halfblown 

The Autumn chills ; 
And many a love halfgrown 

Reflection kills. 

93 
The chief omission to be found 

In human nature's laws 
Is, that thereby we are not bound 

To bear the griefs we cause. 

94 
'T is not the lot we Ve got 

That sweetest seems, 
But that which we have not, 

I' the land of dreams. 

28 



95 
How much do we forget ! This very 
day, 
Which seems momentous in its hopes 
and fears, 
In time will from our mem'ry fade away, 
Or wander, dateless, through a 
stretch of years. 



9 6 

To live without a care, 

Is not to live. 
To give the smaller share, 

Is not to give. 
A plan that bears no seed, 

Is not a plan. 

A man that has no creed, 

Is not a man. 
29 



97 

No measure like the quatrain to supply 
The setting for a loving smile or sigh, 
Or for a tender, reminiscent tear, 
A dainty, quaint conceit, or withering 
sneer. 

9 8 

There 's much that 's sweet to feel 
That words cannot reveal ; 
And much that 's too divine 
For Feeling to define. 

99 

(From the German) 

If you receive a blessing, 

Your pride restrain : 

It might have cost another 

Some loss or pain. 
30 



And if you meet with sorrow, 

Remember, too, 
It might have spared another 

In seeking you. 

ioo 

She smiles when I 
Complain how fast 
The day has passed, 

And says : " Why sigh ? 
Time goes, but here 
We still are, dear." 

I smile, but know 
There '11 come a day 
When Time will stay, 

And we shall go. 
Ah, yes, I smile, 
But grieve the while. 



31 



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